Spotlight on Fraygirls!
What is
your real name?
Well, there are three of us – Michelle, Katharine, and Charlotte. As usual, Michelle’s going to be doing all of the talking.
What do you do for a living?
I volunteer as a tutor at the local schools. Of the three of us, Charlotte has the most lucrative gig – she begs for quarters during the Flaming Amy’s events, but always manages to blow the money on the skill crane machine.
Tell us about your family, are any family members geocachers?
There are four of us in our immediate family – the three fraygirls and our poor frayguy, otherwise known as Rob. If geocaching were more golf-like, Rob would really like it!
When did you start geocaching and what was the first cache that you found?
We started back in ’04. I saw an article about geocaching and thought it sounded cool. I spent my childhood combing through the woods looking for fossils, arrowheads, and petrified wood (yeah – like there’s petrified wood in Rhode Island!), so the thought of being outside and searching for something that I actually might FIND really appealed. We checked out the site, saw that there were a few caches near us, and went out to find them before we even had a GPS. First find was the Seahawk Cache (GCFEE), a nice old cache at UNCW. We ended up adopting it a couple of years later, and now we own the first cache logbook in which we ever left our signatures.
What has been your most memorable caching moment so far?
How much time do you have? This one is impossible for us to answer – there are just too many ways in which caches can (and have) become memorable, even when we least expect it. I mean, we once found a pretty ho-hum cache in a barren parking lot in Myrtle Beach and had to slam on the brakes as we were leaving because a hawk came swooping across right in front of us and it had a seagull in its talons!! The hawk landed nearby and started feasting on his prey and we just sat there watching with our eyes bugging out of our heads and we knew that we’d never forget *this* boring park & grab!
Scenery is often great and puzzles are gratifying to solve, but it’s the people (or the mishaps) that make a cache outing most memorable for us. And there are just way too many mishaps and great people to single out here on this page.
(Except I would be remiss if I failed to mentioned GW5 - the planning, the teamwork, the event itself…all so awesome!)
You have held several events, what are the things that you most like about hosting events?
Events are a blast – they are a nice way to build the local caching community, and I love to see everybody. They’re also a great way to ensure that we are not celebrating odd occasions such as Festivus, April Fools Day, and the start of tourist/hurricane season alone. I could hang out with other cachers for hours, and inviting everyone to an event is so much more acceptable than showing up on doorsteps unannounced.
So what really happened at the Cape Fear flash mob event? Any other good stories from your events?
Ah, such a peaceful gathering on the beautiful and benign Cape Fear River! Except for the small craft advisories, the cargo ship, and that one part where (s)wimseyguy nearly drowned and people were paddling for their lives and the Coast Guard and ambulance showed up. What DIDN’T happen would be the better question. I need to plan another one of these events.
We always enjoy the Festivus events (where we force folks to publicly gripe about each other) and the April Fools events (where everyone gets up and tells their biggest caching fool story from the past year), and we are hoping to host another Trolley event soon. Last year’s was absurd, with everyone squished together and singing Happy Birthday to the driver (it wasn’t his birthday) while eating truffles and riding along the bumpy streets of the historic district!
What kind of caches do you most enjoy looking for (size/location/etc.)?
This varies wildly. We love the nice scenic ammo can hides, but we also enjoy finding those creative micros. We love puzzles! We adore library caches! As long as the hider puts some thought into any aspect of the cache (location, history, camouflage, puzzle, etc.), then we’re probably going to enjoy finding it.
Describe your ideal cache hunt.
I actually experienced my ideal cache hunt quite recently. The cache was one that I’d anticipated finding for a long time – it took a year of on & off thinking to solve the puzzle, and then I had to wait until we could visit the area where it was hidden. The hike started out in a forest full of old oak trees (climbable!) and there was a strong breeze coming off of the water to which we were being led. My family looked on and offered guffaws of encouragement as I contorted myself into ridiculous positions to retrieve the container (a one-person job, and I drew the short straw). It felt great to be one of the very few signatures in the logbook for a cache that has been around since early ’05! So, to review: woods + water + great company + laughs + tough cache = IDEAL!
What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to take caching?
Please – why take someone famous? Think of the paparazzi and autograph hounds! There goes any hope for stealth. I would take both of my grandfathers – one had the most incredibly dry sense of humor, and the other was the most outgoing and friendly person you could ever meet…and they both loved venturing about in the outdoors. Hmmm, and I can almost hear their response upon the discovery of a cache (in unison): “Well, I’ll be d@mned!”
What other interests do you have outside of geocaching?
I am interested in all sorts of things! I like to kayak, tutor children, plant things, collect old maps/charts/books, invent words, make soups, solve people’s problems, take pictures of things, read, count my lucky stars, etc. I’m also thinking about designing a font someday.
What type of GPS do you use and do you use if for anything besides geocaching?
We are still using the cheap yellow etrex that has been with us since the start. At first the frayguy tried to ruin it (he wasn’t that wild about geocaching), and then I tried to ruin it (hoping for an upgrade). THE THING WON’T DIE!! I can’t justify replacing it while it’s still leading us to caches, and I think we’ll all be a little sad when it finally kicks the bucket.
How often do you geocache now?
Whenever I can! It’s tough living in Wilmington – we’ve had some nasty dry spells where no one was hiding, and I would have to drive a ridiculous distance just to get a couple of smileys. It wasn’t unusual for me to go a couple of weeks without finding a cache (gasp!). Now our local community seems to be growing and hiding, thank goodness!
If you could hide a cache anywhere on the planet (forget the guidelines for this one), where would you put it and why?
I’m deferring to the junior fraygirls on this one because I love their answers. Katharine would hide her cache near the top of the Angel Oak. Located just outside of Charleston, this tree is believed to be 1400 years old! Of course they don’t let anybody climb it, despite my attempts at bribery.
Charlotte would hide her cache at an animal rescue shelter. In order to sign the log you would have to adopt an animal and take good care of it. Multiple finds allowed!
Can you think of a theme song that would best describe your caching experiences?
There is probably a Southern Culture on the Skids song that captures us perfectly, but I can’t think of it at the moment. It would have to be something ridiculous and fun. Why hasn’t anyone mentioned The Seeker yet? C’mon, those lyrics:
I've looked under chairs
I've looked under tables
I've tried to find the key
To fifty million fables
They call me The Seeker
I've been searching low and high …
Do you have any geocaching goals you are getting close to (milestone number, DeLorme or County challenges, number of states, etc.)?
I don’t really pay any attention to that stuff. I’m just not organized enough and, besides, I turn to geocaching to chill out…NOT to think about grids, etc.! We were going to do something really snazzy for our 100th hide, but then we started working on a Birthday Cache Initiative (a bunch of new hides as a surprise for a local cacher’s birthday) with some other folks and we galloped past our 100th hide without realizing it. Oh well.
Do
you often trade items in and out of caches and do you have any signature
item(s)? 
We don’t trade that much anymore. We DO have a signature item – fraythings - that we will sometimes leave as a FTF gift or as a consolation prize for the FTL on caches that we’ve found first. They’re little stuffed felt creatures that we make by hand, and they usually go along with the theme of the cache. Sometimes we make them especially for certain people – Penguincacher, Ranger Fox, and HexTheKiwi all have one, just because we could make fraythings in the shapes of those animals! Needless to say, there is intense demand for such a rarity and they are highly prized by those who have one in their possession! (Or else.)
Do you have any advice to beginners for seeking and/or hiding caches?
Just have fun and be prepared to meet some of the finest people in the world! When you’re on the hunt, don’t be a slave to the arrow…you’ll have more fun and success if you look around. (We learned this lesson at the APE cache.) As for hiding – who am I to give advice? You have my thanks for contributing to the game.
We were told to ask if it is it true that you own all rights to all "toys" found by watercraft in the SE USA.
OH DEAR LORD! You just never know what you’re going to find in a swamp. Twice.
You often write lengthy logs. How is it you find so much to say about a cache and can you point us to any of your favorite logs?
Can I help it if I have so much to say? I’m multi-tasking when I write those logs – they are the best way to 1) thank the hider; 2) let others know that this was an interesting cache; 3) share our bizarre experiences and mishaps (we attract trouble and weirdness); 4) show off vocabulary skills; 5) tell an inside joke or two; and 6) display a wealth of esoteric knowledge. Okay, maybe not. Perhaps I just like making mountains out of molehills. As a hider, I love it when someone takes the time to write an interesting log for one of my caches…and I guess I’m assuming that others feel the same way.
Favorite logs? Yeesh.
The one where I was mistaken for a prostitute:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=afbd6361-15bf-4276-90e8-f568143ec4fc
Town Creek Surprise (see previous question)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=108707ac-9df9-4ae2-b2f4-65b2c4e5f4fd
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=b67052b2-efe3-498b-b812-9c9bc6133fc0
First paragraph of this log inspired a TB that has moved 24,000+ miles!
Holy Wastewater (who hasn’t had fun logging this one?)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=d95e162d-274d-45a4-ae29-b740a47249f8
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=223e4613-ae7d-4740-b0ff-c4cd3f09cbb7
Rogue’s Revenge (ALL of the logs are hilarious!)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f229a390-2565-4614-a5ac-1f32d021f5ae
What do you find most enjoyable or rewarding about being on the NCGO Board of Directors?
Besides the power trip and the company Jeep? Just kidding! I’m really proud to be part of such a great organization. It always amazes me to see such a diverse and widespread group of people work as a team to make things like the state-wide CITO efforts, the Fall Flings, and GW5 a reality. (Although it will take time and lots of baby steps, I’m confident that this organization will also succeed in earning and keeping the trust of the good folks at our State Parks.) It’s been very rewarding to see this community grow into what it is today, and I look forward to seeing us continue to expand not only our membership but also our reputation as a friendly, helpful, and down-to-earth organization.
And now for The Pep Talk: NCGO is *your* organization, which means that we can’t do much without your help. Get involved in whatever way you can – whether it’s chatting in the forums, running for office, attending a CITO or other NCGO event, volunteering to serve on a committee, purchasing some NCGO merchandise, encouraging new cachers to join, etc.,… or all of the above. NCGO is a fantastic organization, but we wouldn’t be much without your continued involvement, support, and enthusiasm. Thanks to each and every one of you for your various contributions so far!
Anything else? The soapbox is yours.
How I love the view from the soapbox! Can I just stand up here for a while and say nothing? No? (Hopping down.)
